


Again

by whatthehellsgoingon



Category: Maximum Ride - James Patterson, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan
Genre: F/M, Gen, i wrote this in 2012 im so sorry, idk how ao3 works ive never posted anything, if youre nostalgic for shitty 2012 crossover fics im your girl, pjo crossovers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2012-05-22
Updated: 2020-03-21
Packaged: 2021-02-28 20:15:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 12,855
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23203069
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/whatthehellsgoingon/pseuds/whatthehellsgoingon
Summary: Again, Maximum Ride finds herself in a strange situation. Several new kids have been brought to the School. All of them know each other, speak a different language, and have weapons. Maybe, just maybe, they can help the Flock defeat the School forever.I wrote this in 2012 and I'm so bored already that I'm uploading it to AO3 and possibly even finishing it.
Comments: 5
Kudos: 16





	1. I Wake Up in a Dog Crate

**Author's Note:**

> I haven't touched this thing in 8 years but I'm so bored already that I'm uploading and possibly finishing this stupid fun fic I wrote for myself in 7th grade.

I woke up in- you guessed it- a dog crate! Wow, talk about déjà vu! Well, that's what happens when you're a freaking mutant bird kid on the run from evil scientists. You get kidnapped periodically.

I blinked a couple times, my eyes adjusting to the harsh light that was illuminating the small room. Fang was sitting in the crate next to me, his eyes closed. I guess he was sleeping, but you really never know with Fang.

Past him, I could see the rest of my Flock in their own cages, all still knocked out. After a minute of straining my eyes, I decided that they all looked fine. I didn’t see any blood or serious injuries, at least.

Completing my inspection of my Flock, I turned my head to the left. A boy, maybe sixteen or so, was lying in the bottom of the crate, completely unconscious. I’d definitely never seen him before. His mouth was wide open and his black hair was flopped over in his face. Despite the less-than-flattering angle, I could tell that he was a very good-lookin' dude.

I glanced past his cage and saw a girl, about the same age as him, with curly blonde hair pulled back into a ponytail. Her gray eyes were trained on the boy, and she was repeatedly poking him through the cage.

 _“Perséas! Pérsi, xypníste!”_ she whispered urgently. _(Perseus! Percy, wake up!)_ I leaned forward, just a bit. What kind of language was that? Definitely not anything I recognized.

She finally gave up on poking the boy rolled her eyes angrily, grumbling under her breath. She turned around and immediately started poking the kid in the cage to her right.

 _“Xypníste!”_ she moaned. I could barely see that far through the freakin' dog cages, but it looked like she was poking a young, dark haired boy dressed in all black, like a mini-Fang.

The girl sighed and turned back around to face the first boy. Her storm-gray eyes widened as she caught sight of me, sitting upright and conscious in my cage. Then, she immediately narrowed her eyes into a vicious glare. Even though she was crouched in a dog crate, she was intimidating. Her eyes seemed to look right into my mind, reading me like a book. I felt like she was looking through my most private thoughts. It reminded me a little of Angel. I sure hoped it was my imagination because trust me, one is more than enough when it comes to mind readers.

“Umm, hi,” I said lamely, trying to break the silence. She just stared at me. _Do they even speak English?_ “You do speak English, right?” I asked, now unsure of what to say.

“Yeah,” she whispered. After another stretch of awkward silence, she asked me, “Where are we?”

“The School,” I answered simply. If she was a mutant, she should know this by now. Maybe she was for a new experiment. I shuddered at the thought, feeling a little bad for her now.

“If we're at a school, then why are we trapped in cages?”

“Not _a_ school, _the_ School. It's a place run by mad scientists who experiment on kids and mess with their DNA and stuff.”

Her eyes widened in horror. “DNA? So they take a DNA test?” Her breath was coming in quick gasps, like she was hyperventilating. Apparently, this is what she found frightening, not the fact that she was going to be experimented on.

“Well, yeah, I guess,” I said, confused.

 _“Chália,”_ she muttered. There it was again, that weird language!

“What language is that?” I asked her.

“It's-” She was cut off as the door to the small room burst open and a very large Eraser walked in. I looked over at the girl, expecting to see her cowering against the back of her cage. Instead, she was sitting at the front, watching the Eraser curiously, but not acting the least bit scared.

“Perseus Jackson,” the Eraser growled. He approached the cage in between the girl and I. I assumed the hot guy in between us was this “Perseus Jackson.” The Eraser opened the door and grabbed him by the back of the shirt. The Eraser dragged him out of the cage, and pulled him across the floor.

 _“Pérsi! Xypníste ilíthie! Eíste étoimoi na epitethoún!”_ the girl screamed. _(Percy! Wake up, idiot! You’re being attacked!)_

‘Perseus’ jerked his head back and his eyes flew open. Even through shadows cast by the cages, I could see that they were an unnerving sea-green color.

He groaned and kicked out at the Eraser, catching him right in the face. The Eraser screamed and dropped the kid, who hit the floor hard. The Eraser growled and raised his foot up to stomp on Perseus' head. I closed my eyes tight, not wanting to see the poor kid's face smashed in. I heard a howl of pain, but it wasn't coming from Perseus. The Eraser was hopping around on one foot, screeching and basically freaking out. Perseus was still on the ground, but his face was definitely not smashed. He sat up, grinning. WTH? He kicked the Eraser again, his foot smashing into the side of the Eraser's head. The big mutant crumpled to the ground.

The blonde girl was still screaming at him. _“Ilíthie, chrisimopoiíste to spathí sou!” (Idiot, use your sword!)_

Perseus glared at her, and then reached into his pocket and pulled out… a pen? I repeat: WTH? He took off the pen's cap, and it transformed into a huge bronze sword. He raised the giant sword into the air and plunged it straight down into the Eraser’s chest. Instead of tearing through the mutant like I expected, the sword went right through the Eraser. And not in a “he got stabbed” kind of way. As in, the sword literally went right through him like he was a ghost or something. All of use froze, not even daring to breathe. Even the Eraser looked confused, staring down at himself as the boy slowly lowered the sword through his body down the the floor with an extremely confused look on his face. I glanced at the rest of the Flock, wishing they were awake to confirm that I wasn’t going completely insane. Maybe the scientists had drugged us up and this was some crazy hallucination.

After a few second of complete silence as we all stared in shock at the ghost sword, the Eraser finally came to his senses and jumped back to his feet. The Perseus guy threw his sword to the side and leapt at the Eraser with his bare hands. After exchanging a few kicks and punches, the Eraser finally went down, knocked unconscious. It was pretty impressive, especially for a new kid.

Perseus walked over to grab his giant sword and held it in his hands gently. Then he touched the pen cap (where’d that come from??) to the tip of the sword, and it shrank back down into a pen again. He stuck it back in his pocket, and walked over towards us with a big, goofy smile on his face.


	2. The Weird Guy Shatters A Needle

“Hey Annie,” he said casually, “do you need a little help there?”

“Don't call me that, Percy!” the blonde girl, who was not Annie, growled.

“Fine, Beth,” he smirked. She glared at him, and I guessed that Beth was not her name either. He laughed at her expression and she opened her mouth to say something, but was interrupted by voice from the furthest cage down, past the mini-Fang.

“Seaweed Brain, get your _varéli_ over here and let me out of this cage!” The voice was obviously feminine, but had a hard edge to it and sounded like the kind of girl who wasn't afraid to beat anyone up.

“Thals!” Percy said gleefully. “Who else is here besides you, me, and Annabeth?” he asked as he walked down the rows of cages. “Death Breath is here too?” He gasped dramatically as he stopped besides the mini-Fang. “Haha, no way! How'd they catch Nico?” He crouched down beside 'Nico' and reached his hand through the mesh of the cage as if to poke him.

“Percy, really? If you wake him up, he will not think twice about killing you,” Annabeth said disapprovingly.

“Yeah, you know that Nico needs his beauty sleep almost as much as you do!” the other girl, ‘Thals,’ snickered.

 _“Eínai láthos tou gia na me kánei bánio stin baniéra ilíthio oxý eínai gnostó os potamós Stygós!”_ Percy replied without hesitation. _(It’s his fault for making me swim in the stupid acid bath known as the River Styx!)_

“Ugh, I don't care! Just get me out of here!” ‘Thals’ screeched.

“Gods, Thalia! Calm down, I will!” Percy grumbled. As he stomped over to free Thalia, I heard footsteps outside the door to the room. Scientists were coming!

“Put the Eraser in an empty cage and get back into yours!” I hissed at Percy. “Now!” He looked over at me in surprise. “Do it! We can escape later, but if the whitecoats find out what happened, there's no telling what kinds of horrible things they might do!” His sea-green eyes widened in understanding and he raced over to the Eraser. He grabbed it by the arm and pulled it over by an empty cage. Grunting, Percy shoved the mutated dog into the cage and sprinted back into his, closing the door behind him.

The door to the room burst open, and a whitecoat stood in the doorway. He walked in, looking around suspiciously. Thankfully, he didn't notice the unconscious Eraser stuffed in the empty cage.

“Time for a blood sample!” he said in a way-too-cheerful voice. He pulled out the needle, grinning like a maniac. I heard Percy catch his breath in surprise at the insane man in front of us. The whitecoat reached down and opened the door to Percy's cage. I half expected Percy to go all crazy on the whitecoat, like he did with the Eraser, but he remembered my warning and instead shrank away from the scientist.

“Give me your arm, you little brat,” the whitecoat demanded, holding out one gloved hand.

“Uh… no thank you?” Percy tried, pulling in all his limbs protectively. The whitecoat just smiled even wider and reached into the cage to grab Percy’s arm and pull it forward. Percy whined in protest but didn’t resist. I watched curiously as the scientist totally missed Percy's arm as he tried to stick the needle in him. The whitecoat tried again, and missed again.

I was starting to wonder if this kid had been experimented on before, and he was a bit like Nudge: magnetic. Perhaps instead of attracting metal like Nudge did, he could repel it.

The whitecoat swore under his breath, and tried again. Every time he completely missed. I was about to burst out laughing at this guy's horrible aim when the needle splintered into a hundred little pieces in the scientist’s hand. I felt my mouth drop open. Percy looked guiltily from Annabeth the to the scientist to me.

“You can't take his blood, stupid,” Thalia scoffed at the stunned scientist. “It's nearly impossible!”

“Shut up, Thalia!” Annabeth snapped, but it was too late.

“What did you say?” the whitecoat walked over to her cage, broken needle still clutched in his hand. “What was that, Omega Two?”

Instead of answering this question, Thalia asked one of her own. “Omega two? What's that?”

“It's your subject number,” the scientist replied, with a tone that implied that he thought Thalia was stupid.

“Last time I checked, omega wasn't a number,” she replied smugly. The scientist gritted his teeth and ignored her jibe.

“What did you say before? About not being able to take that one's blood,” the whitecoat asked, pointing at Percy.

“You'll never find a way to cut him,” Thalia said, in a bored tone. Annabeth groaned and slumped against the back of her cage.

“And why would that be?” the scientist asked, eyes gleaming in a rather evil way.

“Oh yes, I'll definitely tell you, because we're just gonna reveal all our secrets to you, the crazy dude who knocked us out, kidnapped us, and locked us in dog crates,” Thalia sneered, her words dripping with sarcasm. The air around us felt like it was crackling with tension.

“I would punish you for not cooperating, but we need you in full health for the experiment,” the scientist growled, turning away from Thalia. “Now, I still need blood samples.” He picked up a new needle off the table and marched over to Annabeth’s cage. He opened it up and stuck the needle into her arm. She didn't even flinch, just stood completely still as the needle drew blood from her arm. The scientist did the same to Nico and Thalia before leaving the room. I turned back to stare at Percy, wondering how in the world he had shattered the needle like that.

“Max?” I heard a whisper to my right. I instantly recognized Fang's voice, and I spun around to face him.

“Fang, you're awake,” I replied. “Good. We need to find a way out.”


	3. We Make An Escape Plan

Fang looked around, his dark eyes glinting with suspicion. “Who are they?” he asked, tilting his head in a way that gestured to the new kids.

“I'm not really sure…” I replied carefully. Fang raised his eyebrows incredulously. I sighed and turn to the other kids.

“Okay, you lot. Who are you?” I said in my best tell-me-now-or-die voice.

“I'm Percy Jackson, son-” Percy began, and was cut off by Annabeth.

“I'm Annabeth Chase, that's Nico di Angelo and Thalia-” Again the introductions were cut short.

“Just Thalia,” Thalia snarled.

Annabeth rolled her eyes. “Just Thalia,” she repeated.

“I'm Max, this is Fang,” I said, gesturing to myself, and then Fang, who scowled in greeting. Yeah, very scary big guy.

“Oh my gods, Nico! He's like an older you!” Thalia said excitedly. “Do you think... you're related?” She put extra emphasis on the word related, like it was some special “inside joke” sorta thing.

“No, I don't think so,” Nico told her, narrowing his eyes at Fang. After a beat of silence, he turned back to look at me. “Anyway, back to introductions?”

“Past Fang is Nudge, then…” I broke off, straining my hawk eyes to see past the unconscious Nudge.

“Angel,” Fang supplied. “Then Gazzy, Iggy, and I think Total is on the end.” Nico nodded.

“You guys have a dog?” he asked. I looked at him in surprise. I could barely see him, but he could see our dog, several cages down, past all the Flock members?

“Yeah,” I said, nodding my head to hide my confusion.

“Cool,” he said. “Percy has a dog, but she's a lot bigger than yours.” Percy and Annabeth glared at him, and Thalia snickered quietly.

“Shut up, Nico,” Percy growled.

“So, are you guys from around here?” I asked. We needed somewhere to go after we escaped, at least at first when all the Erasers in the whole place were after us.

“Depends,” Annabeth said. “Where's here?”

“California,” Fang supplied.

“Whoa, then definitely not,” Percy shuddered.

“No Seaweed Brain, I live here, remember? San Francisco?”

“Oh yeah! And then there's Mount-”

“Percy!” Annabeth cut him off before he could finish his sentence. “Just shut up, and let's leave our friends on the mountains out of this.”

“Oh, sorry,” he muttered. “I keep forgetting that _they,_ ” he gestured to us with his hands, “are not like, you know, _us._ ”

“What do you mean?” I asked. “Like, not completely human?”

Percy stared at me in shock. “Okay, maybe I was wrong,” he said, surprised.

I nodded. “None of us are,” I informed them. Unfortunately, that's when Nudge woke up.

“Yeah, we’re not completely human. We're only, like, 98% human or something and 2% bir- wait. Who are you?” I mentally face palmed. Talk about the Nudge Channel!

“I'm Percy,” he said, “and these are my friends Annabeth, Nico, and Thalia.” He looked at her curiously. “What did you say that you were 2% of?”

“Bird!” she exclaimed excitedly. Percy's eyes widened. He turned around to his friends, and they all began talking in that weird language again.

 _“Poulí? Eínai ta pouliá?”_ I heard Percy mutter. _(Birds? They’re birds?)_

 _“Kalá, eíste sígoura den imítheous,”_ Annabeth growled. _(Well, they’re certainly not demigods.)_

 _“Pistévete óti léne tin alítheia?”_ Nico butted in. _(Do you think they’re telling the truth?)_

 _“Den nomízo óti i kopéla ítan xaploméni Nudge,”_ Thalia replied, eyeing us warily. _(I don’t think the Nudge girl was lying.)_

I leaned over towards Fang's cage. “What language do you think they're speaking?” I asked him.

“I dunno,” he whispered back. “Doesn’t sound like anything I’ve ever heard.”

“So, you guys are part bird,” Percy interrupted. “Why don't you look like birds?” I guess they’re done with their private conversation, then.

“We have bird wings, 'cause we're only 2% bird,” I told him. “What kind of mutants are you guys?”

“We're not exactly... mutants,” Percy mumbled.

“Bird wings?” Thalia gaped, ignoring the question and Percy’s answer.

“Oh, you haven't been experimented on yet,” I said, glancing at them sympathetically. They all nodded, but then I remembered something. “Wait, you said that we weren't like you, and asked if we were completely human. What are you, if you're not experiments?”

“Umm, well, we're... umm... Annabeth?” I almost laughed at Percy's nervous face.

“Don't worry, it's not like we won't believe you. With what we go through every day, nothing will sound crazy to us,” I reassured them. Percy glanced at Annabeth, who shook her head. He sighed, and shot us an apologetic look.

“Sorry guys. Maybe if we survive this place, we'll tell you.”

“Why can't you tell us now?” Fang asked.

“We would put our entire family at stake if we told you,” Thalia said.

“Well, we told you what we were, and potentially endangered our family,” I pointed out.

“Well, our family is huge. There's…” Percy broke off, and looked at Annabeth, who sighed.

She looked like she was counting numbers in her head. “There's about a hundred and fifty of us in all, I think.”

I just stared at her.

“Are you all related? Or are you like us, just bestest friends forever? How would you even be bestest friends with a hundred people?” Nudge asked excitedly.

“We're all related, but some very distantly,” Annabeth told her. “The director of our camp, for instance, is Percy and Nico's cousin, my uncle, and Thalia's brother.” Thalia made a face. “The activities director is uncle to all three of them, and my mom's uncle, while my mom is Percy and Nico's cousin, and Thalia's sister. Percy's dad's brothers are Nico and Thalia's fathers. All of us have lots of siblings, but it's usually just half-siblings. It's rare in our family to have a real, whole, 100% sibling.” Thalia and Percy cast sad glances at Nico, who was staring at the ground.

“But none of us are related through, like, DNA,” Thalia added. WTH? How are you related, but not through DNA? I turned to look at Fang, who was staring disbelievingly at her.

“Whatever,” he muttered, shaking his head.

“But, that's not important right now. _Chreiazómaste éna schédio diafygís,”_ Annabeth announced. _(We need an escape plan.)_

“What did you say? What language is that? How many languages do you guys spea-”

“NUDGE!” Iggy yelled. “Shut up!” Apparently he was awake now, too. Thankfully, he didn't ask right away who the people were. I think they were getting tired of introducing themselves.

“I said, we need an escape plan,” Annabeth announced, in English this time.

“Ohhh, I thought that you said something about Cleopatra or-”

“Nudge, what did Iggy just tell you?” I asked her in my best mom-voice.

“Oh, he told me to shut up! He tells me that all the time, like once, I was-”

“You should listen to him, Nudge,” I sighed. She nodded her head and mimed zipping her lips.

“So, you said we need a plan,” Iggy stated. “Who exactly are you guys?”

“Can we do this later?” Percy grumbled. “I've already introduced us like seven times.”

“Fine,” Iggy said. “Let's make a plan.”

“Okay, have you guys been here before? Do you know your way around this building?” Annabeth asked. I was slightly confused by this. Percy had seemed to be the leader of the group, until we mentioned planning. Then Annabeth kind of took over. Maybe they were co-leaders or something.

“Yeah, I mean, we practically grew up here,” I muttered bitterly, ignoring my confusion.

“Well, do you know how to get out?” Annabeth questioned.

“Well, if I was just us, we would probably fly out some window,” I began. I saw Percy's look of confusion, so I had to stop and explain. “We're part bird, remember? We have wings. We can fly.” He glanced at Thalia, who immediately shook her head, looking very frightened all of the sudden. I had no idea what was going on, but Annabeth and Nico obviously did.

“Come on, Thals, please?” Annabeth pleaded.

“Yeah, you'll only have to carry Annabeth and Percy, cause I can get out by myself,” Nico added. Thalia glared at her friends, who looked pleadingly back.

“Please? Please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please? With like, lightning on top?” Percy said. Wow, he was good. Even better than Angel at times! Although, the lightning thing was kinda weird.

“Fine!” Thalia threw her hands up in exasperation, narrowly missing the top of her cage. “I'll do it.”

“Do what?” Nudge asked. “Can you fly, too? Or are you a bird-kid, like us?” Thalia glared at her and poor Nudge flinched visibly.

“I can fly,” Thalia said through gritted teeth. “But I don't like it.”

“Well, if we go out through this door, and take a right, then a left, there's a window that we can fly out of,” I informed them. “But, Nico, how are you getting out? You can't fly, right?”

“I have my ways…” he said mysteriously. Thalia smirked, and Annabeth just rolled her eyes.

”Alright then, let’s get to it!”


	4. Percy Fights a Hairy Dude

“Here they come,” Thalia hissed quietly. The loud, echo-y footsteps of the scientists in the hallways were obvious.

 _Why can't they come back later?_ Angel complained in my mind. I was silently fuming, and I could tell that everyone else was too. Just after everyone had woken up, and just as we were about to put our plan in action, they had to come back to check on us.

The door creaked open, but it wasn't scientists who opened the door. Actually, it wasn't anything I had ever seen before. It was large, hairy man. He was tall, at least seven feet tall. His muscles were huge, like, really huge. They were covered in bulging veins. It was really quite gross. He was covered in brown hair, and he had two long horns sticking out of his head. As he walked in the room, the floor shook. Out of the corner of my eyes, I saw Nudge shrink back into her cage and Angel gasped out loud. Whatever this new mutant was, he was disgusting. He walked straight past our cages and stopped by the new kids' cages.

“Really?” Percy groaned loudly. “Give me a break!”

“Him again?” Annabeth asked, sounding kind of disappointed. The huge guy roared loud enough to shake all of our cages.

“He just keeps coming back for more,” Thalia commented. The hairy guy grunted, and ripped the door off Percy's cage.

“Get 'im, Perce!” Nico cheered, wrapping his small hands around the bars of his cage. “Save us all!”

Thalia rolled her eyes at him. “Oh, don't act like you can't get out of your cage, Nico. You’re not fooling anybody.”

Percy pulled a pen out of his pocket. I barely had time to think, _Whaaaa?_ before Percy charged the giant disgusting hairy dude. As he ran, Percy's pen sprang up into a glowing bronze sword. Uh, what? The hairy guy slid to the side as Percy ran at him. Thalia and Nico burst into giggles as Percy’s momentum carried him straight past the Hairy Dude.

“He... learned that... from you!” Nico managed to choke out.

Percy glared at his friends playfully before whirling around and stabbing the guy right in the back. Hairy Dude dissolved into a pile of yellow sand.

All of the sudden, Nico appeared behind Percy. Like out of thin air. What? The two boys high-fived, and laughed some more.

“Haha, new record!” Thalia sniggered. “It took you forever to kill him last time.”

Percy's sword shrank back down into a pen, and he stuck it in his pocket.

“What was that?” Gazzy asked when they had finally stopped laughing. Nico, Percy, and Thalia all turned to face Annabeth, who sighed.

“That was a monster. They hunt us because of our family,” she explained.

“Oh! Like the Erasers hunt us!” Nudge exclaimed.

Percy looked confused. “Those things hunt you?” he asked me.

“Yeah,” I sighed. “That's how we keep ending up back here. We're like some of the only successful experiments around here, and they send them after us whenever we escape.”

“Wow, that… sucks,” Thalia commented. The other three nodded their heads in agreement.

“Shouldn't we escape now?” Iggy said pointedly.

“Oh, yeah!” Gazzy cheered.

“Let me out first!” Total begged from the end of the line of cages. Percy's head whipped around, and he stared at Total.

“Oh, I forgot to mention that the dog talks,” I smiled.

Nico walked over to Total and crouched down in front of the cage. “Hello, I'm Grover, and I talk to animals!” Nico said, and I could tell that he was trying to keep a straight face. Percy, Annabeth, and Thalia burst out laughing, as did Nico.

“Who's... Grover?” Iggy asked.

“And who's Gladiola?” Angel asked. That's my little mind reader! Percy and Annabeth laughed even harder, practically crying.

“Yeah, who is Gladiola?” Nico asked after they had calmed down a little.

“Hahaha, first quest, we met a poodle…” Percy explained, breathless.

“Grover made us say hello to her!” Annabeth added. The room was filled with silence and a few small chuckles until Angel spoke up.

“Percy was thinking about her,” Angel replied casually to Annabeth's unasked question.

“What?” Annabeth said sharply, all traces of her laughter gone.

“I was answering your question,” Angel told her. “Yes, I do.” After a moment of silence, “Hey! I am not!”

“Angel,” I interrupted. “Don't confuse her!” Angel grinned at me sheepishly. “Angel is a mind reader,” I said, addressing the non-Flock members. Annabeth's eyes widened, and Nico gasped.

“That so cool! Wait, what am I thinking about?” he asked her.

She smiled sweetly. “Well, you're thinking about Hades, that scary guy from that movie Hercules!”

“Wha-what?” Nico stuttered.

“Nico!” Annabeth snapped. “Really?”

“I hate that movie!” Nico exclaimed. “They make Hades look like such a bad guy...” he trailed off.

“And they make Hercules look like a hero,” Percy grumbled. Thalia nodded in agreement.

“You three need to shut your mouths and think about other things!” Annabeth ordered.

“I'll try, Wise Girl,” Percy said, giving her a small smile. He reached over and unlocked Annabeth's cage. She stood up, gave him a kiss on the cheek, and went to help get the others out of the cages. When everyone was free, Nico cracked the door open to peer down the hallways.

“Not a single living thing!” he announced. As we made our way down the quiet hallways, Percy chuckled softly to himself.

“Who's Chiron?” Angel asked.

“Percy!” Annabeth shrieked. Percy threw his hands up in the air.

“Sorry! That's exactly what Chiron told me when I asked what was in the attic!” Percy defended himself.

Thalia laughed. “That's so true!”

Annabeth rolled her eyes as we continued to creep down the hallway.

“Okay, here's the window,” I said when we turned the corner. Percy walked over and opened it up.

“Here we go!” he said cheerfully. All members of the Flock jumped out. Thalia closed her eyes, Percy and Annabeth took her hands. Together, they slowly climbed out the window. I was still worried about them falling, but the air seemed to support Thalia and her friends as easily as the ground did. I waited for Nico to climb out, but he never did. I looked at Percy questioningly, but his eyes were closed almost as tightly as Thalia's. Annabeth caught my confused look and shook her head. She would explain later. I nodded in response, and we started heading to the park, where we had agreed to meet.

I thought we were home free, until I heard a voice from the School behind us. “Hey! They're getting away! Get the Erasers, we have escapees!”

We flew even faster now, and thankfully Thalia had opened her eyes. As we raced on, I heard the crazed growls of the Erasers. Oh, crap. We were really in for it now.


	5. We Kick Eraser Butt

I glanced behind me quickly, and was greeted with the sight of winged Erasers pouring out of the window. Not Flyboys, not robots, Erasers with wings. Like Ari. I swore under my breath and flew a little faster. I wanted to get out of there, but I didn't want to leave the others behind.

“Faster!” I shouted. The Flock sped up, and so did the others. I could hear the beating of wings behind me.

“There's the park!” Nudge shrieked, pointing at a large, grassy field by a play structure below us.

“Land, now!” I yelled. Everyone dove downward and we all landed near a bench.

“NICO!” Percy yelled. Nico stepped out from behind a tree. He grinned when he saw the group of monsters following us. He pulled a pitch black sword out of nowhere, and waited for the Erasers to land. I turned back to the others, to see Thalia with a silver bow and arrows. Percy had his sword out, and one of those round shields people use in movies and stuff. Annabeth was gripping a small but sharp dagger, the same color as Percy's sword. My Flock had nothing but their fists, but that was enough. A look of horror and panic crossed Annabeth's face as she gazed down at her dagger.

 _“Periménete! Eínai thnitó! Ópla den tha leitourgísei!”_ she screamed. _(Wait! They’re mortal! Our weapons won’t work!)_ All of her armed friends started cursing and putting away their weapons. An Eraser howled in anticipation as he landed on the soft, green grass. The winged beasts landed in a circle around us, and were closing in fast.

As soon as one was close enough, I leapt up and kicked him in the jaw. He yelped in surprise, and struck out at me. I ducked. I used his momentum to shove him over, and slammed the back of his head into a nearby rock. He lay still, stunned. One down, about thirty left to go. I whirled around to face another Eraser. I smashed my fist into his face before he even saw me. He staggered backwards into Thalia, who quickly and cleanly snapped his neck. The loud crack made me cringe. I looked up at her, and she looked like she felt the same way as I did about killing him.

“Stupid mutt!” Nico yelled as he kicked and Eraser in the gut. The Eraser went flying, much farther than a normal kick from a normal human should send him. He crashed into a nearby tree and slid down the trunk.

”You smell like dog!” Nudge screamed as she pummeled an Eraser with her tiny fists of fury.

”Hey, come on now!” Total complained from his hiding place under the bench. “That was uncalled for!”

I fell into step with Fang, who was refraining from throwing out witty one-liners like the rest of our little rag-tag escapee group. Not that that took any effort on his part. He’s more the strong and silent type anyways. He snapped an Erasers arm while I dodged a kick from another. Thankfully, me and Fang made a great team when it came to all-out brawls like this one. I tripped his Eraser and he sent a right-hook at mine. The two dogs crashed into each other headlong, knocking each other to the ground. I shot a grin at Fang before moving on to my next victim.

Percy was laughing like a maniac as he whirled through the small army of Erasers, punching and kicking.

“Perce, you're doing it again!” Annabeth yelled as she jumped up and kicked and Eraser in the face.

Percy stopped laughing and yelled back, “Sorry, 'Beth!”

“As soon as we're done here, I'm gonna kill you!” Annabeth yelled back.

“Mmm’kay!” Percy laughed, taking out three Erasers with one kick.

“Less flirting, more fighting, please!” Thalia growled as she kicked an Eraser right in the crotch. I wasn’t really surprised that she wasn’t above fighting dirty. With a vicious grin I followed suit, aiming my ratty tennis shoes at the nearest Eraser’s more delicate areas.

Before long, we had managed to overpower the Erasers and sent most of them fleeing back to the school, although there were still quite a few of them laying pathetically on the ground. One was dangling from a tree branch like a trapped kitten. Another had his head stuck in a nearby trashcan and his feet were sticking straight up into the air.

“Well... that was... interesting…” Iggy panted. Nudge, Gazzy, Angel, Iggy, Fang, and Total had all sat down beside me in the grass. I looked around; trying to ignore the piles of unconscious Erasers were littering the park grass.

Nico sat down on a bench, inspecting a large gash on his leg, most likely from an Eraser's claws.

Annabeth was digging through a bright orange backpack. Blood was seeping down her skin, as she was covered in several small cuts. I idly wondered where the backpack had come from. I didn’t remember seeing it in her cage at the School.

Thalia was walking around, kicking the bodies on the ground. Blood was dripping from a gash above her eye, and several more in various places.

Percy was the only one who didn't seem to be hurt, but I didn't even have the energy to wonder about that little fact.

Annabeth pulled a canteen out of the backpack. She handed it to Thalia, who took a sip and immediately seemed energized. Then she poured a little on the cut on her face before she gave it to Nico. The same thing happened to him. He passed it back to Annabeth, who drank some before stowing it away in the backpack.

“What's that stu-” I started to ask them, but was interrupted by a big burly man in a police uniform.

“What the…” the policeman asked. “Did you kids just kill... OH MY GOD!”


	6. We Make a Plan, Again

“Umm, yeah, we did,” I said. Yep, that's me, always pissing someone of and getting in their face. Behind me, I heard a long-suffering sigh from Fang and a ill-disguised giggle from Nudge. The rest of the Flock gathered in tightly, unsure of what was coming next.

All of the non-Flock members exchanged glances. They seemed to have a four way glaring contest until Thalia sighed in annoyance and stepped in front of the horrified officer. Thalia closed her eyes in concentration. She snapped her fingers and the air around her seemed to ripple.

“You didn't see anything,” Thalia said in a powerful, commanding, and slightly scary voice. “We're just an innocent group of normal kids in the park. There isn't a pile of dead/unconscious mutants over there.” The officer nodded, now looking dazed. Thalia grinned and stepped back.

The officer looked around, seemingly confused. “Why was I here again?” he muttered to himself as he walked away.

I looked at Thalia in surprise. “What was that? And if you happen to have crazy cool powers that let you do awesome things, tell us 'cause we might just have them too,” I said, thinking that they must have lied about being mutants. I mean, how else could they fly, teleport, and force people to do what they wanted with a snap of their fingers, right?

“They're not mutants, Max,” Angel interjected. “But they aren't completely human, either.”

“What's that supposed to mean?” I demanded. “How can they be anything besides human if they're not experiments?”

“I don't know,” Angel replied. “Why don't you ask them?”

“Why don't you force them to tell us?”

“Part of all of their minds are blocked off!”

“What? Why?”

“I don't know!” Angel said, her eyes wide and confused, and very upset.

“Hey!” Thalia interrupted. “We're right here, you know.” Both Angel and I glared at her. She glared right back.

“What do you mean, our minds are blocked off? And really, only a few people can force us into anything,” Annabeth said, her gray eyes narrowed.

“It's really none of your business what Angel can and cannot do,” I shot back in a cold voice. “It’s not like you guys are giving us anything, so why would we tell you crap?”

 _“Ach, megáli. Étsi, o mikrós eínai mia goiteía milóntas kóri tis Afrodítis. Akrivós ó, ti chreiazómastan,"_ Nico snorted. _(Ah, great. So the little one’s a charm speaking daughter of Aphrodite. Just what we needed.)_ Even without actually understanding the language he was speaking, I could hear the sarcasm and annoyance in his words. 

Annabeth shook her head. “I don’t think so.”

“Aww, are you sure Annabeth?” Thalia asked, looking Angel up and down. "’Cause she looks like she could be.”

“I don’t care, as long as she can't goiteía miloún,” Percy snorted. “Drew's bad enough by herself.”

“As long as I can't tell who Mulan?” Angel demanded. She put her hands on her hips and glared at Percy. “Tell me what you’re saying. Now!” Percy stumbled back from the enraged little girl. Normally, I would have stopped her, but I was curious, too. “Tell. Me. What. You’re. SAYING!” she screeched when he didn't answer.

 _“Paírno píso. Faínetai perissótero san kóri tis Athinás, den symfoneíte?”_ Percy said. _(I take it back. She seems more like a daughter of Athena, don’t you agree?)_ He cast a sly glance at Annabeth, who glared back. Thalia held back a snicker, and Nico raised an eyebrow.

“Are you comparing me to the little girl screaming in your face?” Annabeth demanded.

Percy simply shrugged. “Well, she's definitely got the hair, and the temper,” he snorted.

Thalia's eyes widened, and her hand covered her mouth. Nico raised both eyebrows this time.

“What did you just say to me?” Annabeth screeched. I had to admit, she did sound a lot like Angel did just seconds ago. Annabeth marched right up to Percy, and pulled out her small, but undeniably sharp, dagger. Before things could go any further, I stepped in between them.

“Woah, woah, woah, guys. Break it up,” I said. Percy shot me a grateful look, but I ignored him. Annabeth glared at me, but slowly put away her dagger.

 _“Ilíthio thnitós,”_ she muttered under her breath. _(Stupid mortal.)_ Then she shook her head. “Percy, you're just asking to be killed aren't you?” she sighed, making it sound more like a statement than a question.

“I think we all know the answer to that is yes,” Thalia interjected.

“This is great and all, but we should leave before, I don't know, another freakin army of crazed wolf assassins comes along to try and kill us!” I suggested politely. Hahaha, politely. I make myself laugh.

Percy nodded. “Where should we go?” he asked. “Do any of you have like… a safehouse or anything nearby?”

None of us answered.

“Well, we could head to my house... but…” Annabeth began.

“Issues with your dad?” Percy asked.

“My step-mom,” Annabeth sighed. “She got really mad. It was just a little Hellhound, too!”

“A Hellhound?” Iggy asked. “That sounds awesome!”

“Yeah! What is a Hellhound? Is it a kind of dog? I love dogs! So does Total, probably because he is one. Iggy, we should get Total a friend. Do you think Hellhounds are big? Annabeth, are Hellhounds awesome?” I don’t even need to tell you that one was Nudge.

“Hm. So no San Francisco. New York, then?” Percy mused, ignoring the Hellhound conversation.

“‘Awesome’ is not a word I would use to describe them,” Thalia muttered in response to Iggy and Nudge.

“Hey!” Percy protested, completely losing interest in his previous conversation.

“Sorry Perce, but you know I'm Mrs. O'Leary's biggest fan,” she said dryly.

“That's it! Shadow travel!” Nico exclaimed. “Percy, call your dog.”


	7. We Ride the Demon Dog Express

Nico stretched his hands out in front of him. I watched, curious, as he seemingly ripped the air apart with his hands to reveal a swirling dark hole. I saw my own shock mirrored in the faces of my flock.

Percy took a deep breath and screamed into the hole. “MRS. O'LEARY! Come here girl!” Then he took a step back and crossed his arms.

Thalia also took a step back. Annabeth covered her hands over her ears, and Nico simply waited. At the base of the nearest tree, the shadows seemed to swirl together to make another black hole.

“What's…” Nudge trailed off as a pitch black dog as big as a tank appeared out of the shadows. The dog's gleaming red eyes traveled over all of us, coming to a stop at Percy. It let out a bark that sounded like a small hand grenade exploding, and leaped at Percy.

“Whoa girl! Down, Mrs. O'Leary!” Percy yelled as the dog smashed him into the ground. I leapt forward, my natural fighting instincts kicking in, but stopped as I realized that I had no idea how to take down a dog bigger than several of the trees surrounding us. Huh, go figure.

Thalia sighed and stomped forwards. She grabbed the dog's tail and started pulling, trying to get the dog off Percy. Annabeth joined her, and Nico walked around to where Percy had disappeared. 

“Well? Stop staring and help us!” Thalia snapped in our direction.

I quickly jumped forward, and hesitantly grabbed the dog's tail. Nudge followed us, looking as nervous and as weirded out as I was. Strangely, she was silent. Next came the Gasman, and then Iggy, Angel, and last of all Fang.

“Pull!” Annabeth huffed. All eight of us yanked on the dog's tail, and she let out a startled yelp. We all tumbled away from her and landed in a tangled pile at the base of a tree.

“Hey! Move, Fang!” Iggy said, kicking out at the older boy. Fang growled in response and shoved Angel off of his legs.

“Nudge! Get off me!” Gazzy screeched.

“That's not me, that's Angel, stupid!” Nudge yelled back.

“I am not stupid, stupid!”

“Hey! Thalia, move!” Angel snapped. Oh yeah, she sure knew how to fit in with the 'big kids.'

“Oh, shut it midget!” Thalia responded. “Just get this boy off of me!” she growled, smacking Fang upside the head while trying to point at Iggy.

“You say boy like it's a bad thing!” Gazzy said crossly as he tried to tug his leg out from underneath the pile of bodies. 

“Yeah, I did that on purpose,” Thalia snarled.

“Okay, who's sitting on my head?” I asked impatiently.

“Sorry Max!” Gazzy squealed, trying to jump up but then landing on top of his younger sister.

“Whoa whoa whoa guys, calm down,” Annabeth said, barley concealed mirth in her voice. “Here, Iggy, pull you legs in, and Fang, move your left leg so he can get his arm free. Angel, get your feet out of Nudge's face. Gasman, roll over so Angel can get out. Umm, let's see, Thalia, calm down, I'll get the boy off of you if you stop freaking out. Iggy, stand up now. See Thalia, was that that bad? Don't answer that. Now, Max, just pull your arms in, so then you can get out, and there! You're all free!”

I stood up and brushed all the dirt off my brand new windbreaker. Ha, yeah, right. It's not new. But whatever.

“Gods, Mrs. O'Leary! Lose some weight, will ya?” Nico said, scratching the demon dog behind the ears. She was currently laying on the ground, her head in her paws.

“Haha, sorry about that guys. She can get a bit... excited,” Percy said dryly.

“What is that thing?” Nudge asked, her wide eyes trained on the tank-dog. “It looks like something I once saw on TV! In movie, there was this-”

“This is my pet Hellhound, Mrs. O'Leary,” Percy interrupted.

“Hellhound?” I asked, and my voice squeaked a little. Percy laughed at my expression.

“Yeah, it's a looooong story,” he grinned. “I'll have to tell you later. Now, everyone jump on!” he said and scrambled up the dog's back. Annabeth rolled her eyes, but followed Percy up. Thalia hesitated for a second, looking up at the dog, before she shook her head as if to clear it and quickly went after Annabeth. I exchanged disbelieving looks with Fang, but before I could say anything, Nudge raced after Thalia, and the Gasman after her.

“Wait, Nudge-” I started to yell, but then stopped when Iggy and Angel made their way over, with Fang walking behind. I sighed in defeat and trudged after them.

Once we were all aboard the Demon Dog Express, Percy looked down at Nico, who was still on the ground.

“Where are we going?” he asked. Nico looked over at Thalia, who shrugged and looked at Annabeth.

The blonde girl sighed, and whispered, “Well, we can't exactly take them to camp, can we?”

I had a feeling that this was supposed to be a private conversation, but I couldn't exactly help the fact that I had crazy good hearing. Not like I wouldn't be straining my ears to listen in on them even if my hearing was normal, but whatever.

“We could, umm, tell them that Chiron is some hybrid like them, and everyone else there is normal?” Percy suggested. “Except for like, Argus, and Hestia and Mr. D? ’Cause Mr. D wouldn't appreciate being called normal, but maybe Hestia wouldn't mind. At least, I don't think she'd blow us up or anything. Mr. D, on the other hand-”

“Percy,” Annabeth cut in sharply. Percy smiled sheepishly and grinned at her.

“Sorry,” he sighed.

“Well, where are we going?” Thalia asked impatiently. “’Cause my Hunters wouldn't appreciate having to go to camp just to meet up with their lieutenant. Unless, of course, you guys are up for another game of capture-the-flag,” Thalia shot a cheeky grin at Percy.

“You’re on, Pinecone Face!” Percy shoved at Thalia’s arm and the dark-haired girl almost fell off Mrs. O’Leary’s back. 

“So, camp?” Nico interrupted.

“I don't know, what will Mr D. say? I don’t think it’s wise to chance it.” Annabeth said. She turned around to face us bird-kids. “You have any ideas on where we could go?” she asked me in a louder voice.

“Not particularly,” I said. “Somewhere warm. Like, not Antarctica.” Fang snorted, and Angel giggled.

“Yeah, well, not somewhere too warm, like a volcano,” Percy added. This time Nico snorted, and Annabeth giggled.

“Don't worry, Percy,” Annabeth said, “We learned our lesson the first time.”

“Well, we could go to a beach,” Percy suggested.

“Yeah!” I agreed, just as Nico and Thalia screeched, “NO!”

“Yeah, the beach!” Angel agreed. Nudge nodded happily. Fang nodded silently.

“Beach, beach, beach beach!” Iggy and the Gasman chanted.

“Looks like you’ve been outvoted, guys,” Annabeth smirked, glancing at Nico and then Thalia.

“Beach, beach, beach, beach, beach!”

“Nonononononono…” Thalia grumbled.

“BEACH, BEACH, BEACH, BEACH!”

“SHUT UP!” I yelled at the two boys. They both fell silent under my ultimate death stare. Woo, point for Max. Percy leaned down and whispered something in the dogs ear.

“Roof,” Mrs. O'Leary barked before running straight at a tree. I heard several screams, and saw another shadow portal thingy open up. Inside, we traveled at about one million miles an hour. It was cold, and I felt like my face just might peel off. Panicked screaming turned into crazed laughter as we raced onwards. It was over in just a few seconds, but it had felt like forever. I caught a glimpse of bright sunlight before I heard the urgent voices of surprised people. My eyes tried to adjust to the bright lights, but before they could something that felt suspiciously like a frying pan hit me in the back of my head and I blacked out.


	8. I Meet Percy's Mom('s Frying Pan)

“Oh my gods, oh my gods, is she okay?” a panicked voice asked. I wrenched open my eyes, only to slam them shut again. My head was pounding and the bright lights and various voices were disorienting.

“Max? Max!” I could hear a young girl's voice. Angel! This time when I opened my eyes, I kept them open. I looked straight up at the ceiling, faces swimming at the edges of my vision. Angel, Gazzy, Iggy, Fang, Nudge, Thalia, Annabeth, Percy, Nico. Total pushed his wet nose into my hand. Ew.

“Owww…” I muttered.

“I'm soooo sorry!”

I turned my head and caught a glimpse of a middle aged woman with brown hair and a worried expression on her face.

“You just appeared out of nowhere, and I've learned that when things like that happen, it's usually some horrible creature coming to hunt my son, and I was holding the frying pan-”

“Mom,” Percy cut the woman off. “Calm down. She's fine.”

I sat up, rubbing the back of my head. “Yeah, well, you're not the one who just got hit in the head with a frying pan!” I snapped.

“Max!” Nudge screamed joyfully. She and Angel leapt forward to give me relieved hugs. After I shoved the two girls off of me, Fang offered me his hand. I grabbed it, and he pulled me up. I finally got a chance to look at my surroundings. We were in a small kitchen, with various pots and pans set out on the counter. I also saw a large bottle of blue food coloring there. Next to the woman was a man with salt and pepper hair, in a casual outfit. Behind him I caught a glimpse of a large black shape, which I assumed to be our mode of transportation. I looked out the window, and saw the gray sky and stormy ocean.

“You okay, Max?” Iggy asked. “That was a pretty loud crack.”

“Nowhere near as bad as a brain attack,” I said, rolling my eyes and then wincing involuntary. “I'm fine.”

“Do you need ice or anything? I could get you some ice, or-”

“I'm fine,” I repeated shortly. That was a lie, my head hurt like heck, but I wasn't gonna tell these people that.

“Oka-ay, if you’re sure,” the woman said in a disbelieving voice. “Well, I'm Mrs. Jackson, and this is my husband Paul Blofis.” She turned away from me and faced Percy. “What are you doing here? I thought you were at camp.” 

Percy made a face. “We were,” he said. “All four of us were called up to the, uh…” He glanced our way, “mountain. Um, the... oh, you know what I mean. Dad, Uncle H, Uncle Z and... um…” He broke off again.

“She's your cousin, Seaweed Brain,” Annabeth sighed.

“Yeah! My cousin,” Percy agreed.

“Which cousin?” his mother asked.

“The one with gray eyes,” Percy said. “The super scary one.” Outside, thunder rolled.

“Percy,” Mrs. Jackson sighed. “If you keep that up, you're gonna get yourself killed.”

“Eh. They don't scare me as much as they used to,” Percy replied without missing a beat.

“Anyways, back to your story. They called you to the mountain?” Mr. Blofis prompted. Percy nodded.

“We were in the Gray Sisters’ taxi-” Here Thalia mimed puking. Annabeth giggled. Percy glared playfully at the both of them before continuing. “So when we got out and payed, we started walking up to the Empire State Building, and then all of the sudden something smelled really funny. I remember telling Annabeth, and her agreeing with me, before I passed out.”

“It was some type of gas,” Annabeth said.

“Then, when we woke up, we were in some science lab. I was the first to wake up.”

“And then there were these weird wolf guys!” Nico added.

“Erasers,” Iggy corrected.

“Yeah, them. And then, umm.. Pasiphae's* son showed up again, and Percy beat him up again. And then…” Thalia's face suddenly filled with horror. “They took a blood sample!” she whispered. Cue gasps from Mrs. Jackson, Mr. Blofis, Annabeth, Nico, and Percy.

“I'd forgotten about that!” Percy said, eyes wide. I couldn't help but remember how the needle had missed his skin so many times.

“They took a blood sample?” Mrs. Jackson squeaked.

“Oh, this is so bad,” Nico couldn't help but add.

“If they see our DNA, we're screwed,” Annabeth moaned.

“We gotta Mist 'em or something,” Thalia said.

“You could destroy the results before they see them,” Mr. Blofis suggested.

“Why are you all freaking out?” I demanded. “What are you? We told you our secret, now you should tell us yours!”

“Sorry Max. Can't do that. And if we did, we'd end up having to Mist your memories away,” Nico smirked.

“No clues or anything?” Nudge wanted to know.

“I'll give you one,” Annabeth told us, giving her friends a look that said come-on-you-guys-they-deserve to know. At least I assume that’s what it was. “You were right, Angel,” she said. “We're only halfway human. But we're not mutants created in a lab. We were born like this.” Before any of the Flock could respond to that, Mrs. Jackson broke in.

“Mutants? From a lab?” she asked, her face filled with surprise and curiosity.

“Yeah!” Nudge said with a big smile. “We're bird hybrids created by Whitecoats in a secret lab in California called the School!” I slapped my forehead with the palm of my hand in exasperation.

“Nudge!” half the Flock screamed in unison.

“Sorry?”

“So you guys are bird hybrids?” Mrs. Jackson asked, an unreadable emotion playing across her face.

“Yeah,” I sighed.

“We can fly! Cause we're bird kids and we have wings and I heard Max say that we have light bones and stuff. Oh, and we have to eat a lot of food cause we need, like, a lot of calories or something like that.”

“Nudge, I'm seriously considering duct-taping your mouth closed,” I growled. But she rambled on, completely ignoring me.

“Oh, and we all have special abilities and stuff! I'm a human magnet, and when Fang sits really still, he disappears into shadows!” Nico's head jerked around to face Fang. Neither black-clad boy said anything, but Nico continued to stare at the mutant boy. Nudge still went on, oblivious. “And Angel can talk to fish, and breathe underwater, and-”

“She can do what?” Percy yelled. All of the color drained from Mrs. Jackson's face. All of the non-Flock members gaped at each other.

Then Nico grinned. “Percy's gotta sister! Percy's gotta sister! Percy's gotta-” The pale boy was cut off when Angel spoke up.

“I only have one brother, and that's Gazzy!”

“He's your brother?” Annabeth asked. Angel nodded. “Well, what kind of stuff can he do?”

Gazzy grinned wickedly.

“No!” I gasped. Angel took a step back, and pinched her nose with her fingers. Nudge let out a strangled scream. Iggy gasped aloud. Fang's eyes widened with horror. And Gazzy let one loose. Needless to say, we continued our conversation outside.


	9. Percy Makes a Phone Call

“So, this School, they kidnap innocent children and do experiments on them?” Paul demanded angrily.

“Painful ones,” Nudge chirped, tilting her head to one side. “And most of the time they don't survive.”

I glared at her. 

Sally looked ready to kill. (Not us, the whitecoats.) “That's horrible! That's... That's... I don't even know what that is!” Sally growled.

Percy put a hand on his mom's shoulders. “Geez, Mom, calm down,” he huffed. “We're gonna find these morons and kick their butts all the way to Hades.”

Sally nodded, but still looked upset. Paul pulled her in for a one-armed hug. I idly wondered what kind of cuss 'hadeeez' was.

“Okay, so we need a plan and we need one fast,” I interrupted. “These guys happen to be some of the best stalkers have had the pleasure-”

Fang raised an eyebrow in amusement.

“-to meet,” I finished. “They could show up at any time.”

“Oh, how right you are, Maximum,” a smooth voice crooned. Everyone whirled around, searching for the owner of the voice. “Look up, little birdies!” the voice laughed. I did just that. About twenty feet above us, Ari was bobbing up and down in the wind, his big clumsy wings flapping hard to keep him up.

“Ari!” I screamed.

“Hello sister,” he cackled. “I heard you'd escaped, so of course Daddy dearest sent me to come searching for you!” He dropped several feet, his black shoes only a yard from my head.

“Ah... who's the wolf-bird-guy?” Percy asked.

“Ari. My half brother,” I growled at the same time Ari replied with “I'm her dear little brother!”

“So, you guys are siblings,” Percy clarified.

 _Well, if he's my brother, then we're probably siblings,_ I thought to myself, resisting the urge to roll my eyes or maybe turn around and smack the boy. Nope, more important things at hand right now. “Yes,” I answered him shortly. Then I turned back to my 'little' brother.

“Now, Max, how do you want to do this? You can either come with me now, or I can drag you away, kicking, screaming, and most definitely injured.”

“Oh yeah? You and what army?” Thalia demanded. Her arms were crossed and her eyes narrowed threateningly. I had to admit, this girl had my respect, but right now I wanted to freaking clobber her over the head with an assortment of extremely solid objects.

Ari grinned wolfishly (pun intended) and clapped his hands twice. I whirled around as about twenty Erasers emerged from behind me, where Percy's parents' cabin was. Some clambered right over the cabin, some walked out from behind it. Still others were decked out in wings like Ari, and they flew right over the cabin and landed softly in the sand. Twenty more emerged from across the beach at the neighbors' cabin.

“You just had to ask,” Nico said dryly. Thalia sent him a death glare.

Nudge looked up at me with a worried look on her face. “Can we take 'em, Max?” she whispered. I opened my mouth to reassure her that, yes, we would most definitely pound them into the ground, when Annabeth beat me to it.

“Heck yes we can! We're gonna kick their furry behinds all the way to next week!” she said, her voice strong as she stepped up to stand next to Thalia.

Both Percy and Thalia whooped excitedly, with Iggy, Gazzy, and Nudge adding their voices. Nico raised one eyebrow, giving his friends the 'seriously?' look. As the Erasers approached, Percy dashed in their direction. Everyone turned and stared at him, even the Erasers. He vanished inside the cabin, only to reappear moments later holding several frying pans.

“What?” he demanded, seeing the looks on everyone's faces. “We're used to fighting with weapons!” he said in a defensive voice as he handed Annabeth a frying pan. Thalia snatched the other two from him.

“Annabeth, duck!” Percy screamed suddenly as he swung his frying pan at an Eraser who was trying to sneak up behind his girlfriend. The pan connected with the wolf's face, making a loud crunching sound as the long snout was smashed into his face.

“See, frying pans!” he said with a cheeky grin, all signs of previous panic gone. Thalia shoved a frying pan at Nico, who tried to reject the offer. Before he could give it back, however, an Eraser pounced on him and he fell to the ground. With furious screams three frying-pan-wielding warriors attacked the wolf. A small smile spread across my face before I whirled around and joined the battle.

I'll spare you the details, but it was a quick battle. The Erasers didn't know what hit them. (In case you didn't either, it was frying pans and fists. And some shoes, too.) The battle ended with minimal damage to us, extreme damage to them. At some point, Sally and Paul had slipped into their cabin, and now they walked back outside.

“Is everyone okay?” Sally asked, looking us over. We all nodded that yes, we were fine. Just some minor scrapes and bruises, luckily.

“What now?” Percy asked.

“We hit them while they're down!” Iggy growled. “Before they send more Erasers.”

I nodded my head in agreement. “They won't be expecting us to attack so soon.”

“But how are we going to attack a huge building filled to the brim with whacko scientists?” Thalia scoffed. “It just doesn't make sense.”

“If we burned the building down…” Annabeth mused. “But no, there'll be other kids in there, right?”

“Yeah,” Nudge agreed sadly. “We wouldn't want to hurt them. Unless some of them were, like, fire-proof, then they would survive but-”

“Then what?” Percy interrupted her, and carried in the conversation like she hadn't spoken. “The building burns down, sure. But what stops them from rebuilding?”

“Fear,” Annabeth decided. “If we scare them bad enough, they'll stop hurting kids and leave you guys alone. And maybe give us our DNA tests back.”

“So, ten kids and a poodle come running in and threaten them with a pen, a hair clip, a baseball bat, and a hairbrush or something?” Percy argued. “I doubt that'll do much.”

“A hair brush?” Gazzy demanded. “That doesn't even make sense.”

“Well, I don't know what our weapons would look like to mortals, besides mine,” Percy huffed indignantly.

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“The Mist,” Thalia answered. “That same stuff we used to trick the policeman earlier. It keeps mortals from seeing things as they truly are. You guys can see through it, probably because you're part bird.”

“I have an idea!” Percy shouted. Everyone turned to him.

Annabeth raised one eyebrow in amusement. “Let's hear it then.”

“What if there were more than ten kids? What if it was more like... an entire camp?” No one said anything for a minute. Thalia's jaw dropped.

“Annabeth! Why didn't you think of that?” Nico laughed.

“Call camp!” Percy urged. “Tell them to meet us at your house!”

Annabeth pulled a silver phone out of her pocket and dialed a number quickly.

We all fell completely silent, leaning in and trying to hear the faint rings.

“You know what? I'll just put it on speaker,” Annabeth groaned.

The phone rang loudly this time, and everyone took a step back.

 _“Hello?”_ a male voice answered cheerfully.

“Hi,” Annabeth replied. “Is this…”

 _“T and C, SoH? Yep!”_ came the reply. Us bird kids exchanged confused glances. Percy choked on laughter, and Thalia face-palmed.

"Travis... What did I say about your little 'code?' And why do you have the camp phone? Where’s Chiron?" Annabeth growled.

_"Geez, Owl Head. Chiron is busy pulling some kid out of the lava pit. And this isn't even Travis."_

“Trav, we know it's you,” Nico said, leaning in towards the phone as he spoke, completely ignoring the baffling comment about the kid in the… lava pit?

 _“Hey, Nikki!”_ two voices exclaimed in unison. After a moment of silence, broken only by Nico's protests against the nickname, scuffling was heard through the phone.

_You moron, that's my line!”_

 _“Nuh uh! You already got to talk to Owl Head! It was my turn!”_

_“You son of a gorgon! You messed it all up!”_

_“Son of a gorgon? Travis, if I’m a son of a gorgon, then so are you!”_

“Hey, guys, just focus for a minute!” Annabeth pleaded.

“You idiots know I can shock you through the phone, right?” Thalia threatened. Both boys fell silent.

“So, Travis, give the phone to Connor. Let me talk to him,” Annabeth said in a forceful voice.

 _“Connor?”_ one voice asked.

 _“Travis?”_ said the other.

Annabeth threw her hands in the air and groaned. “I give up!” She chucked the phone at Percy, who caught it right before it hit him in the head.

“Yo, T and C SoH! PJ, SoP!” Percy said into the phone with a sly grin.

“Percy! Not the code…” Annabeth groaned. “Don't give them the satisfaction!”

_“PJ SoP! Wassup man?”_

“Guys, we need reinforcements. Numbers. People.”

 _“Don't you mean half people?”_ one of the boys said pointedly while the other one snorted in the background.

“Zip it, Stoll, we got several ND's here!”

Both boys gasped. _“You mean…”_

“Get the whole camp to SanFran. Meet us at Annabeth's house.”

_“Annabeth?”_

“Sorry, AC, DoA,” Percy said, rolling his eyes. “Anyway, make sure to have everyone bring two weapons, one regular, one even more regular.”

_“What?! You mean like...”_

_“Who... what... what is going on?”_

“Relax, you two, it's only for show. It's not like we'll actually hurt them. We just need to scare the crap out of a bunch of morons who probably can't see.”

_“So, two weapons per person, the entire camp, at Annie's house?”_

“Yup, thanks guys!”

_“Wait... how do we get there?”_

“Any way you can. Tell Butch to beg his mother. Actually, you two should probably do some begging, too.”

 _“Fine. But you owe us whatever it costs to convince 'em.”_ And with that, the line went dead.

“Alright, guys! To Annabeth's house!” Percy grinned.


	10. The Author Finally Updates The Story

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright, here comes the first update this story has seen in more than 7 years! I literally don't remember anything about Maximum Ride so I'm basing all of my characterizations on the previous 9 chapters of this story slkfjsdlkslf

After saying goodbye to a worried-looking Sally and an overly excited-looking Paul, Percy ushered us all onto his demon dog’s back once again. I squirmed uncomfortably, squished in between Fang and Nudge, who was crowing excitedly. I don’t know what she’s so excited about, riding this giant demon dog sucked and I wasn’t looking forward to being frozen half to death on our way to Annabeth’s house.

“Lets go, Mrs. O’Leary!” Percy yelled, nudging the giant dog forward with his heels, like she was a huge slobbery horse. Mrs. O’Leary barked once, loudly, and surged forward. Behind me, Nudge screamed excitedly and wrapped her hands around my arms tight enough to cut off circulation.

When we finally emerged from the dark void of whatever-the-heck that was, Mrs. O’Leary lowered us to the ground on the lawn of a nice, average looking house in a suburban neighborhood.

We all slid down onto the ground and gazed up at the cream two-story house. There was a basketball hoop out front and a car parked in the driveway. A bike was laying haphazardly across the sidewalk.

“Woaah…” Nudge gasped. “You live here?” She turned to Annabeth, who looked a little uncomfortable. Percy slid closer to her and looked two seconds short of wrapping a supportive arm around her.

“Sort of,” she responded with a shrug. “It’s complicated.”

We all exchanged glances, understanding just how complicated home life can be when you’re a kid with weird powers being hunted all the time. I can relate, for sure.

“Well, no use in standing out here on the lawn. Let’s head in.” Annabeth took off across the grass, nudging a basketball out of the way with her foot. Percy, Nico, and Thalia were right behind her, and us bird-kids trailed after them a little reluctantly. It’s not like we had a ton of experience with how to behave in a normal house with a normal family, so you can’t blame us for being a little wary.

“Do you think they have cookies in there?” Nudge whispered to Angel as they walked. Hearing the word cookies, Gazzy and Iggy both perked up. I rolled my eyes at them, but secretly hoped for cookies, too. This seemed like the sort of house that would always have fresh-baked cookies coming out of the oven.

Annabeth reached the front door and paused. She took a deep breath before she turned the handle and pushed the door open. Sounds of chaos and the smell of fresh cookies floated out of the perfect house.

 _Yes! Cookies!_ I heard Angel cheer in my mind, and I shot a small smile at her as she skipped in behind Nudge.

“Dad?” Annabeth called into the house.

The loud yelling we had heard from outside stopped. “Annabeth?” a voice that was definitely not her father answered. Two boys slid around the corner, pushing at each other in their haste. “Annabeth!” one yelled. Both boys threw themselves at the girl, and she seemed surprised as she caught them both in her arms.

“Guys, this is Bobby and this is Matthew,” Percy grinned, pointing to each boy in turn. “They’re Annabeth’s half-brothers.” The two boys broke away from Annabeth and came to greet Percy, who gave them both high-fives and a fist bump.

“Hi!” Nudge chirped when the boys finally turned to face her. “Are you guys mutan-” Thalia wrapped a hand around Nudge’s mouth to cut her off before she could finish her sentence.

“What’d she say?” one of the boys asked. No, I can’t tell you which one. They look exactly the same, okay?

“Nothing,” Thalia told them with a tight smile.

Both Bobby and Matthew narrowed their eyes at her, but then they turned back to their sister. “We didn’t know you were coming back, Annabeth! Do Mom and Dad know?”

Annabeth’s face darkened. “No, not quite.”

“That’s okay, I’ll go get them!” One of the boys took off running to go find his parents, oblivious to Annabeth’s sudden mood change.

He returned a moment later with two adults, a blonde man with big glasses and a pretty Asian woman with her hair pulled back into a loose bun.

“Annabeth!” the man exclaimed, rushing forward to throw his arms around her.

“Hi, Dad,” Annabeth mumbled, her face squished against his shoulder.

“Annabeth, what’s going on?” the woman, presumably the previously-mentioned stepmother.

Annabeth pulled away from her dad and sighed. “We’re not staying or anything. We’re just here to help some friends.” She gestured to our rag-tag group of weirdos. Her family all turned to stare at us. Nudge waved.

“Hello!” Her dad exclaimed, almost bouncing with excitement. “I’m Frederick Chase! Are you guys-”

“They’re not, Dad. Cool it,” Annabeth interjected. “Their situation is a little more complicated than that. Anyways, this is Max, Fang, Iggy, Nudge, Gazzy, and Angel,” she rattled off, pointing to each of us. Nudge waved again.

“Would you kids like some cookies?” Annabeth’s step-mom asked.

Nudge’s eyes lit up and she almost launched herself Mrs. Chase. “Yes! We love cookies! I was hoping that you would have some and then when we walked in we could smell them and I said to Iggy-” Nudge’s voice faded as she followed Annabeth’s step-mom into the kitchen. Thalia, Nico, Iggy, Gazzy, and Angel trailed behind them, not to be left behind.

I resisted the urge to go with them, instead opting to stay in the living room with Percy, Annabeth, and Annabeth’s dad. As the leader of the Flock, I should probably stay and listen to the important stuff. I was definitely going to make my way to the kitchen at some point, though. For sure.

“So, what’s going on here, guys? Is there anything I can do to help?” Mr. Chase asked once we all flopped down onto the comfy-looking couches. Oh man, it felt good to finally sit down and take a break. I hadn’t realized it, but we’d been going non-stop for like 2 days now. We had a little time to rest at Percy’s, but it definitely hadn’t been long enough.

“We just need a little time to rest and gather our forces,” Annabeth answered her dad.

“Forces? What are you guys planning? Taking on a horde of big, dangerous monsters? I can totally help with that! You know, that one time with the planes I really-”

“No, Dad,” Annabeth interrupted. “No monsters. And we’re not even going to be fighting, probably. We’re waiting for reinforcements for a… intimidation mission. We just need to tell some people to back off and leave our friends alone.”

Mr. Chase rubbed his chin. “Hmmm… well, if you’re sure. I’m sure I could be very helpful, I’m very intimidating.” He pushed his glasses back up onto his nose. I saw Percy bite back a grin and I felt myself resisting the urge to smile, too.

“Dad, it’s okay, we have it under control. We just… might have a lot of kids showing up at the house in the next few hours.”

“Well, the more the merrier!” Mr. Chase exclaimed. “Bring ’em all! In the meantime, you kids can hang out with us and get a meal and maybe a shower.”

 _Yes!_ I need a shower so bad. Nothing like several life-or-death fights with winged dog mutants to really stink a girl up. Cookies could wait, I was definitely getting that hot water before the other kids hogged it all.

After a nice long shower, which I thoroughly enjoyed despite the constant pounding on the door and yelling from Nudge that I needed to _get out right now Max, stop being so selfish, other people want to shower, too,_ I headed back downstairs to finally get my hands on some of those cookies. I found Nico and Thalia sitting at barstools at the kitchen counter, both of them mowing down a plate of chocolate chip cookies. I snatched four cookies off the plate and stuffed them into my mouth before turning around to see where the rest of the Flock had gone.

Angel and Gazzy were sitting on the big couch, watching some cartoon on the Chase’s big TV. Fang and Iggy were standing behind them, talking seriously. Or maybe not. It’s hard to tell with Fang. In the middle of the room, Annabeth’s brothers were stacking more Lego blocks onto an already precariously slanted tower.

I made my way over to Annabeth, who was watching them from a big comfy chair next to the window.

I perched myself on the arm of the chair. “So, when will those reinforcements be here?” I asked.

“Soon, probably,” she said. “Tomorrow morning at the latest. We’ll head over to your School by 11, for sure.”

I nodded. “I hope this works. I can’t even imagine a life where I’m not being hunted by the School, but I bet it’s great. Going to school, living a normal life, that’s all I’ve ever wanted.” Jeez, I guess being here in a normal house with a (semi) normal family was making me sappy.

Annabeth smiled a little. “I know the feeling.”

A beat of silence followed. “You know, your dad and your step-mom seem pretty cool,” I said to her as I watched her dad scoop up an armful of blocks and drop them at the boys’ feet with an excited grin on his face.

“Yeah, they’re pretty okay,” Annabeth’s face softened as she watched her dad hoist one of the boys onto his shoulders to add the blocks to the top of tower.

“A lot of us would give anything for a family like this.”

Annabeth sighed. “They’re not perfect, but I do love them. Our lives are just too much for them, sometimes. And I don’t want to put them in any danger.”

“Don’t forget to let them do what they can to help, though, okay?”

Annabeth nodded.

I grabbed her hand and pulled her out of the chair. “Alright, sappiness over. Come on, let’s go show ’em how it’s done. That dumb tower won’t last another 2 minutes with them throwing pieces on top like that.” She grinned and let me lead her toward the boys.

“Alrighty boys, we’re here to show you how it’s really done,” she announced, playfully shoving one of her brothers out of the way to grab a handful of blocks. “This tower needs a better foundation before you build it any taller.”

Percy dropped the blocks he was holding and sent her a sloppy salute. “Ma’am yes ma’am!” Bobby and Matthew giggled at his antics.

Annabeth rolled her eyes good-naturedly and grabbed the blocks. “Okay, so you’re going to want to add some more blocks down here around the base…”

As Annabeth coached the boys through Lego tower building, I let my gaze wander around the room. Iggy and Fang had joined Angel and Gazzy on the couch and they were flopped into one big bird-kid pile. Nudge, who had _finally_ finished her shower, came sprinting down the stairs wearing some of Annabeth’s old clothes. She launched herself onto the couch, landing right on top of Fang, who grunted in pain but didn’t complain. Angel scooted over to make room for Nudge to burrow into the pile. I thought I should feel jealous of Annabeth and her normal little family, but instead I just felt thankful for my own little family, as un-normal as we were.


End file.
